• Songs as Ringtones - don't need them.
• Games - Yes it does. It has Safari.
• Any flash support - It has Safari which supports standards. Flash is not a standard.
• Instant Messaging - Two words: AIM Express in Safari.
• Picture messages (MMS) - E-mail.
• Video recording - Already have a camera.
• Direct iTunes Music Store Access - Safari.

Flash support (not yet)

Songs as ringtones: which phones will let you use your full MP3s as ringtones?

Instant Messaging: iChat?

Picture Messages: attach e-mail? isn't this in the commercial?

Video recording: confirmed it's not there??

My cheap-ass Motorola v325 lets me put MP3s on it to use them as ringtones. I'm surprised since it's a Verizon phone, and Verizon normally doesn't let you do ANYTHING.

The v325 also has GPS, something the iPhone lacks.

man, i think you should be a

you should totally be able to use your songs from itunes as ringtones. I was hoping Jobs would do that since he has been on the DRM (?) free kick. We already bought the music, let us use it as we please.

you forgot "a decent network coverage for a large part of the population" chen...sheesh

No songs as ringtones is a feature, not a bug. Apple correctly understood how annoying they are for everyone else.

Windows Mobile lets you use songs as ringtones, as well as Sony Ericssons and some other manufacturers. MMS is not the same as email. Video recording also confirmed.

@DOMERDEL

My Motorola Z3 let's me use a whole mp3 as a ringtone. Is it practical? Of course not. What I hope the iPhone does have is the ability for me to send custom made ringtones to the phone via Bluetooth.

Hang on, what? Source please?

I thought iChat was on this thing? And no MMS? I can send photos by email, sure, but what about people with other phones that want to send them to me?

I knew there was no Flash, a little suprised about the ringtones thing (don't really care though), but no games? Not even the ones that play on my current iPod?
Hmm - well, I guess they are made for a wheel input, so I can chill for now.

Biggest thing is the bit about iTunes. I'm hoping that you mean you just can't get to the store via WiFi right on your iPhone.

If my iPhone doesn't act like a normal iPod when it comes to synching with iTunes, I'm going to be very upset.

Apple apologists FTL!

Since when is flash not a standard? Seems pretty standard to me on a lot of websites. Although I would assume the lack of flash will get fixed at some point. The thing does play youtube vids, which are flash, unless they are converting them on the fly to play on the Buddha-phone.

Confirmed as not being in there, I mean.

Another thing iPhone does not have, and probably will not have for a very long time is my greasy paws around it, because i'm not in the usa...snif...

@permission: Source is NYT and WSJ.

Wait... so it has some things some people like and other things other people don't like?

Won't someone think of the children?!!!

You missed a few things from your 'doesn't have' list:

- Competition
- That annoying WM feature where apps don't die and hog memory
- Anything to do with MS

Now those are three solid reasons to be going iPhone

i figure there will be an update to use GarageBand to generate ringtones from music stored in iTunes. the iLife suite is pretty sweet that way.

if not that, the i bet iTunes will be able to do it, which covers Mac AND windows users.

that failing, there are a ton of Web tutorials on how to make ringtones from mp3s using only free and readily available software.

again, why is this even an issue?

@domerdel:
My Blackjack lets me use full MP3s as ringtones.

I won't duplicate what others have already commented about here. But I think it needs to be said that this first phone from Apple is really a totally different animal in the cell world kingdom. It's a much an iPod as it is a phone. The features the phone DOES have are light-years ahead of the competition.

I imagine that once Apple has ensconced itself in the cell phone industry you'll see things like GPS and 3G (when AT&T has 3G wide spread) ...

In order to have complete design in the hardware AND software I am sure Apple had to compromise with AT&T somewhat. Visual voicemail is something that Apple insisted upon while AT&T most probably insisted on EDGE and other things.

Has Gizmodo decided to become apart of the anti-iPhone crowd? Seems to me that today is the day Giz jumped on the negative bandwagon. Why is that?

Oh, and has for the earlier post by Giz about the pricing plans and whatnot, all the AT&T features like early cancellation fees and things are not just for the iphone, its on all the phones. As for not being able to buy one and use it as a touchscreen iPod because it has to be activated to run all the features I say this; why would anyone want to buy a phone and not use it as a phone? And all the smartphones has features that need an actual carrier to work. Its like saying you want the Blackberry for email but don't want to pay a carrier for the privilege. Makes no sense..

Wow. GenericMan was on the damage control like a Mac fanboy on an iP...nevermind.

Wow, what a bunch of apple appologists you all are... these are features that other more common and lower priced phones offer that the iPhone does not. Your personal preference was not asked.

Anyway, the lack of a keyboard is the worst omission in my opinion. Texting or emailing is essential at this point and typing a message without tactile feedback is really annoying. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that this touchscreen is smudgeless, but I'll have to see it to really believe it.

And now I will close with a gratuitous apple jab:
S5, if "Annoying for everyone else" was a priority for them then they would have executed all their own fans years ago.
Ba-zing!

no mp3 for ringtones is disappointing. i create actual "phone like" rings and store them as mp3s on my SE. oh well.

instant messaging: yahoo also has web based IM now = safari

GPS: will come, as a bluetooth accessory

flash: will come, when work out deal with adobe

I can deal with lack of iTunes -> ringtones. I actually don't really care so much about my phone's ringtone.

@GenericMan: I have yet to see a web game that didn't use flash.

Again, I know I'm being really repetative, but no SDK or scripting language. That's the biggest issue. This can cover a good amount of the lack of functionality missing (e.g. games and ichat)

"• Any flash support - It has Safari which supports standards. Flash is not a standard."

Least. Informed. Statement. Today.

Has Gizmodo decided to become apart of the anti-iPhone crowd? Seems to me that today is the day Giz jumped on the negative bandwagon. Why is that?

The Google app missing GPS functionality is like ordering a banana split and getting everything but the banana. It's especially painful considering that Google claims to have such support in the WM6 and Blackberry versions of the software.

It's also more or less a dealbreaker for me; I basically promised myself that any new phone I spend actual money on will have the feature.

(Yes, I know about the N95, no I'm not terribly fond of Symbian and what its fans affectionately call "quirks," but the rest of us call "glaring defects."

where is the built-in LCD projector to display my itunes movies on the wall huh huh?

songs as ringtones... don't care. Kinda annoying anyway.

games... don't care. Got an iPod Video with two games I bought... barely play them.

flash support... might come soon. No biggy.

IM... dude... who care's. Can't you wait until you get home or to the office. Sent a TXT message.

video recording.... who want's crapy video get a Video Camcorder - HD if possible.

direct music purchase... who care's I got a huge library of music already. I would rather back my music up on my computer Hard Drive

real keyboard... it already has the best digital keyboard

GPS and 3G... I can do just fine with google maps which even tells me about traffic. also why would i want to drain my battery... I'm good with WiFi... Edge just for google maps, email etc...

removable battery... I've had my motorola for 2yrs never had to change it... same with ipods. If it goes bad send it in and get it replaced.

storage... 8gigs is plenty.

also keep in unlike other cell phones... this is like an iPod... and like an iPod there will be TONS of ACCESSORIES from different companies.

Either you like it or you don't

You Mac fans forget it's just a Smartphone with a lack of basic cellphone features.

You're better off getting AT&T plan, and purchasing a AT&T 8525 for $100. Smartphones are just retarded versions of Pocket PC phones.

The iPhone SUX! I cant believe the number of people that are ignorant to the massive drawbacks of this "half-smart-phone"...

@GSTYLEZ:
removable battery... I've had my motorola for 2yrs never had to change it... same with ipods. If it goes bad send it in and get it replaced.

Except that means you're without a phone until Apple turns around the replacement. Doing it for an iPod is fine; I can go a week or two without a portable version of my CD shelf. My PHONE? Not so much.

1- Flash *is* a standard DE FACTO. But I am pretty sure it will be coming in an upgrade.
2- My Sony Ericsson Walkman lets me use MP3s as ringtones. Apple better let me do the same but of course maybe AT&T wants to make money forcing people to buy ringtones (that's the hidden, milking part of the deal).
3- Tons of great games online. Alas, few of interest until Flash is supported (and we know Java is unlikely to be :::sigh:::).

@Xtremecamera: Nope, we're just listing the features that the iPhone doesn't have. We weren't sure whether these were in or not before, but it's confirmed now.

Added a few more from USA Today and Newsweek's reviews.

the giz is apparently entering step 5 of the iphone anonymous program to recovery.

true... would suck to be without a phone. Maybe they can do something with ATT or Apple Store where you can just bring it in...and swap it....LOL

DO IT APPLE

"true... would suck to be without a phone. Maybe they can do something with ATT or Apple Store where you can just bring it in...and swap it....LOL
DO IT APPLE"

talking about battery replacement

@gstylez:

"real keyboard... it already has the best digital keyboard"

I guess you know this because you've used it? Oh, you haven't? Then how do you know it won't blow? That's right, you don't. cough fanboy! cough

Chen,

Rather than practice iPhone apologetics here and try to defend each one of these "deficiencies" (if they ARE that), you should make this some sort of sticky we can refer back to. When Apple fixes these through software/hardware revisions, cross them off the list and note when it happened.

It can be like slowly counting down the signs of the apocalypse for the second coming of the true JesusPhone...

@GENERICMAN

What a fanboy. You will still praise the phone if it doesn't have a screen right?

-Songs as Ringtones - ???? Every media capable phone should have this

-Games - Eventually maybe? Or no support at all? That would be lame.

-Any flash support - Eventually, maybe? As long as people don't want it for YouTube. Their player sucks.

-Instant Messaging - This is a lame feature anyway

-Picture messages (MMS)- That's lame. It's a fairly useful feature.

-Video recording - Not a huge loss, but a fun feature that I use surprisingly often on my phone.

-Direct iTunes Music Store Access (Over Wi-Fi or EDGE) - That doesn't make any sense. Lame.

-Voice recognition or voice dialing - Even the cheapest phones have this. Lame.

-Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Streaming - I thought music was a huge part of this phone...? Lame

-One-size-fits-all headset jack (May have to buy an adapter for certain headphones) - See above answer.

Stuff we already knew it didn't have
-3G (EV-DO/HSDPA) - I don't use the internet at all on my phone, so it could have the slowest access possible, and I'd be fine with that.

-GPS - Even really cheap phones have this. Lame.

-A real keyboard - So what? Touch screen is fine. Have you tried to use a Q's keyboard? They suck.

-Removable battery - That's kind of dumb.

-Expandable Storage - An SD slot of some sort would have been nice. Not for more room, but for transferring stuff from other sources (other phones, computers)

Most of this stuff is a software update away, but the battery issue will really suck if they don't come up with a way to do it in-store. Nobody will tolerate being phoneless for more than a few hours because of an intentional phone design. That said, Apple knows this and likely has plans to address it.

As for 3G and GPS, Apple is thinking "upgrade dollars - cha-ching" And can you really blame them?

@Jacquesass: That's not a bad idea!

The iPhone only looks cool. You didn't think it would actually be cool, did you?

--Deamion

RE: My Internet comment: Many people use this, so not having the best/most available connection is lame.

i'll wait t'ill iPhone 2.0 or iPhone video...or whatever...

All you people who think you want an iPhone had better think twice before you go there. The high cost and long contract are something you can't avoid. I don't care how "cool" you think it is, it isn't the "do all, have all, must have" device that fancy advertisement is selling you. Let's face it; some of you shouldn't have one because it is out of your financial reach. You can't stop feeding your kids to pay for those extras.

I really would have liked to have seen a slide out keyboard similar to the one on the helio ocean. I just really can't get behind an all touchscreen GUI, I've got big hands and fingers.

I would really rather Apple had taken the phone out of this and just made it a uber-ipod video with the same interface and a 80GB HDD. They could have dropped it at $449-$499 and it probably would have sold like mad.

Although, I would bet money the next ipod will have this type interface if this thing gets great reviews.

Lack of GPS is really stupid though, I've got that on my $50 razr v3m.

School is in session, haters... Mossberg said the keyboard worked great and as fast as a Treo/Blackberry, and that he was able to type as fast within days. He also said the battery is the longest lasting on the market by far. Lastly, he said although EDGE is rather slow, the switch to WiFi is supersmart and then all goes superfast. These were easily the three biggest complaints people had, besides the price, but we also know that the plans are quite reasonable now. Repeat after me... S-C-H-O-O-L-E-D.

@First commenter:

• Songs as Ringtones - don't need them.
[This logic can be used to rationalize any missing feature.]
• Games - Yes it does. It has Safari.
[Like others said-no flash means no fun internet games. Will probably be taken care of with an upgrade, though]
• Any flash support - It has Safari which supports standards. Flash is not a standard.
[lol...]
• Instant Messaging - Two words: AIM Express in Safari.
[True, but it'd be much nicer to have a separate client so there's no need to use Safari.]
• Picture messages (MMS) - E-mail.
[What about receiving? So to send an MMS, you would like me to find a signal -if available-, log on to email, send it to someone else's email, call them to ask them to download it, and then have them manually transfer to their phone?]
• Video recording - Already have a camera.
[I already have an MP3 player-so?]
• Direct iTunes Music Store Access - Safari.
[Don't have an iPod so I don't even know if direct iTunes support is a good thing. In my experience, iTunes has been slow and buggy so this might be a good thing...]

Does anyone know anything about tethering the iphone with a laptop? I know its not 3g so it would be somewhat slower but I think this is an important feature that hasn't seemed to have been mentioned yet....

I've owned cell phones for a short decade now, and never once have needed to replace a battery - and never once have kept a cell phone past two years- I doubt this will be a deal breaker for most CAPABLE of spending $500 on a phone.

Tell Steve Jobs: Unlock the iPhone! The Apple iPhone will ONLY work with AT&T

Tell Steve Jobs: Unlock the iPhone! On Friday June 29, Apple will release the iPhone, with 3 million units available -- seemingly more than enough to match the endless hype. However, if you want to purchase one, you'll be stuck using it on AT&T. It doesn't matter that the iPhone could work on other networks -- Apple refuses to let that happen.

The iPhone uses technology (known as GSM) that should allow it to work on other wireless networks, including overseas. But Apple has configured the iPhone so you're forced to use it on AT&T. An iPhone purchased in the U.S. will only work on the AT&T network, regardless of what SIM card is placed in it -- it cannot be taken to another GSM network such as T-Mobile.

So, if you're interested in an iPhone but are turned off by AT&T's corporate policies -- such as turning consumers' information over to the National Security Agency without warrants, their efforts to wipe out net neutrality, or the close-to-100% Republican giving of their new chairman -- you're out of luck.

It is in fact perfectly legal, according to a recent decision from the U.S. Register of Copyrights, for American consumers to unlock their phones for use on whatever network they would like. Apple is trying to take away that right by locking the iPhone to AT&T's network.

Sign this petition and add your name to the list of Americans calling on Steve Jobs, the President of Apple, to make the iPhone unlockable so that consumers can use it on networks other than AT&T. Then, forward the petition link on to some friends -- let's all remind Steve Jobs that the reason he's in business is because of us.

-It doesn't do dishes, windows or floors

THIS is a total dealbreaker for me, because I have lots of dishes and windows and every room in my house has a freaking FLOOR!

@munan:And @RobotVampire:

Flash has not been nor will it ever be a standard. Is it used alot, especially in these Web 2.0 days, yes, but to be a standard it has to conform to the W3C which it never will since "flash" is not a open platform but one that was made by Macromedia and then bought out by Adobe. There are W3C compliant ways to host flash content, but flash the application is considered a proprietary plug-in.

that being said, I am disappointed the iPhone doesnt currently have flash, but Im pretty sure it will in the near future, Adobe is VERY slow in working with manufacturers in leveraging their technology.

Stopped into an att store today, a couple tidbits:

-Only one phone per customer during opening week

-current customers NOT under contract pay the additional data plan amount, and any text message contract additions can be kept or removed

-The biggie (confirmed by the manager and 2 employees, man I hope this is wrong!): iPhone also drops a secret price bomb in your lap ala at&t: Current customers still in a service contract with att cannot buy an iPhone without paying a $175 contract buyout fee!

I made sure to ask the questions as many ways as I could, and here is what I found out:

Under normal circumstances, att customers only qualify for upgrade (subsidized) phones once they reach the end of their contract term. So, I'm still 12 months away, so I cannot get an upgrade price on a phone at an att store. No big deal, I can pay full price and still bu